UMR on perceptions of NZ’s media
UMR polled 750 New Zealanders from 24 to 27 September on what they think of the NZ media. Very interesting results:
- Only 35% said the NZ media are accurate in reporting the news, with 25% saying inaccurate, 37% neutral and 3% don’t know.
- Over 60s have the lowest score for accuracy – 23% compared to 43% for under 30s.
- 30% say the NZ media are balanced and 30% say they are one-sided.
- 27% say they are willing to admit mistakes, and 46% say they are not willing.
It is a pity UMR did not report party identification, as I would be very interested in if there was any significant differences between National and Labour voters.
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Tags: Media, media bias, Polls, UMR
October 7th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I am getting old enough now so that I was around when some of the history happened. It’s impossible not to groan when the teeny-bopper journalists are so ingnorant.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
The media are all just plants for the Labour party aren’t they? Just ask Redbaiter
October 7th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Interesting but a bit simplistic. I think the media are sometimes accurate and sometimes inaccurate, but I guess it’s hard to poll on that. Inaccuracy by omission and inaccuracy by how an item is presented and structured can also come into it, ie misleading and over the top headlines and lead paragraphs/comments, tacking the “balancing” view at the end of an item.
Yeah, it would be good the one-sided question broken down by political leaning.
Here’s a stab at how I see the media
Main newspapers 70% accurate
TV news – 30% accurate – too much omission, to much arbitrary emphasis, to much jacked up and arcgive video
Blogs – I’d better not say but overall their accuracy and balance are not great, too many are too full of their slight importance (not referring to Kiwiblog on the last point)
And how I rate the parties (as they are now):
National – 80% – generally positive about what they are doing, have to see what they do when they get cranked up
Labour – 33% – showing signs of getting their rebuilding together on some things, work in progress
Act – 50/50 – some good ideas, some populist pandering, judge them better in a couple of years
Maori – 66% – don’t always agree with them but seem to be doing ok for their constituency
Green – 25% – they have a lot of work to do to show they have credible leadership and party
The other parties aren’t parties
October 7th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Try the same test of 15yr olds. Far too many probably don’t know which way to hold a newspaper, let alone how to extract meaning from all those little two-syllable words.
October 7th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Interesting survey.
I wonder if the 25% who think media reporting is inaccurate are conspiracy theorists and chaps who talk about ‘bankers’ and multinational corporations as being responsible for their lot in life?
It does seem a bit strange that a quarter of people watch the news yet disbelieve what they are seeing…ha ha!
http://www.nightcitytrader.blogspot.com
October 7th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I wouldn’t assume that this is a National/Labour thing – I presume the survey was a lot wider than just political reporting.
My impressions of media are usually based on their reporting of things that I know something about. If they report wrongly something that I know about, then I assume that the rest of their reporting is similarly incorrect. Note here that I don’t necessarily mean whether their opinion matches mine, but just whether they represent the facts correctly, cover the opposing arguments, get the basics right.
The older I get, the more things I know something about. Therefore the more opportunities I have to identify things that the media have wrong. Further, the more experienced I get, the more easily I spot obvious fallacies in the reporting – reporting percentages on things that clearly aren’t usefully reported as percentages, reporting dollar amounts without include the time period, breathless reporting of the statistically obvious (e.g. half of NZers have below average literacy). So I can see why older folks would be more likely to be sceptical of the media.
Having said that, there is very little media that I would trust any more. Even the Economist, who to me are pretty much the gold standard of clear and accurate reporting, I would still estimate have about half of the content right. They at least usually get the gist down pretty well, and to the lay reader (as I am on most articles) it is enough. But for the things I have good knowledge on, I’d usually say they were omitting some important information, presumably in the interests of brevity or understandability.
As such, I usually put my trust in reading a few different sources and balancing the competing arguments myself.
October 7th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
just looking at the economic meltdown..
running up to the last election ..and flying in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary..
..the media just kept parrotting that fantasy put out by both labour and national..
that ‘the recession is over..!”
(how many times has bollard/treasury said that now..?..)
and if it is the role of the media to both inform and warn..
in this case..
how could they be more of a dismal failure..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
October 7th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Thank the Lord though that all of us here (with the exception of Idiot, philu, Toad, et al) have implicit faith in the balanced reporting of DPF whatever our age or demographic. Lets raise our glasses and drink a toast to:
‘FOMENTING HAPPY MISCHIEF FOREVER’
Long may your arsehole point to the ground and may you be five minutes in heaven before the devil knows you are dead.
CHEERS DAVID
October 7th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I’m not surprised no one has faith in the media when large rags like the Hoeeruld post unbiased, fair, neutral stuff like this. Just look at that headline. “Finally.” No agenda there at all.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I find watching TV1&3 news is sometimes like watching a moving Women’s Weekly. Maybe it’s just me but the news programmes presented to the peasants seem to assume we all have shit for brains. Might just be old age.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
From having some behind the scene knowledge of minor events (not controversial/political) that have been reported in the middle pages of the newspaper or on tv I have foung that these events are partially mis-reported. I will accept that often these are compiled by junior reporters who do not have the same background knowledge of the subject as I do, but it tends to destroy the illusion in regards to the overall accuracy of the news. So what im getting at is that though we bag the MSM they are constrained by having limited time/resources to produce the story and often limited expertise in the field on what they are reporting. Just dont expect me to swallow it whole. It is really noticeable how the quality of reporting has dropped in the last 12 months thanks to lay offs.
October 8th, 2009 at 8:01 am
…the statistically obvious (e.g. half of NZers have below average literacy).
Isn’t the median the half-half one?
October 8th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Like Rhino, whenever I have explicit first hand knowledge of some event reported as news, my experience is the news “reporting” is almost universally inaccurate, not just around subjective things like causality but on the actual events.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:29 am
After nine years of Labour I think it could be fair to say that the media have hopelessly been in their camp. Labour has introduced incredibly radical left-wing pieces of legislation including championing the anti-smacking Bill which is and was a direct attack on the family. Although 88% of New Zealanders disagree with this legislation it went through — aided and abetted by the media. Colin Espiner in his blog believes this legislation is a great social advance. So he is in the 12% who agree with this legislation.
Unfortunately this pattern occurs again and again and again. The legalisation of prostitution would never have occurred if it had not been for a compliant media. The civil unions bill is another egregious example. Outside of the chattering classes, and I accept they are overrepresented in this blog, most New Zealanders are still uncomfortable with homosexuality, particularly homosexuals marrying, and were opposed to making prostitution a legal activity.
However the compliant media — who share the basic “anything goes” world view of the current Labor Party — rolled over.
This is why John Key has to be very careful. The media are hopelessly left-wing and hopelessly secular. Thank goodness for blogs and the Internet. Other views are beginning to come through. The counter revolution will begin.